Overview
- In a new report published Oct. 22, McKinsey says none of the 50-plus Fortune 500 marketing leaders it interviewed could clearly articulate martech ROI, drawing on a survey of 233 senior decision-makers who each spend more than $500,000 annually.
- Forty-seven percent of leaders cite stack complexity and poor data integration as primary barriers, with bloated, siloed tools and duplicated capabilities common across organizations.
- McKinsey estimates global martech spending at about $160 billion this year, projecting roughly $215 billion by 2027, with vendor sprawl reaching about 15,000 offerings and around 3,000 AI-native tools added in the past year.
- Teams often track tactical metrics such as opens and impressions and undercount total cost of ownership, while 34% point to under-skilled talent and many C-suites view martech as a cost center rather than a growth engine.
- The firm recommends clearer CMO–CFO accountability, stack rationalization, and experiments with AI orchestration agents and a governing layer to unify data and workflows, noting effectiveness remains uncertain as industry examples show mixed results.